Progressive Thinking

Timing is especially curious coming on the heels of the extremely critical audit of the Walker Administration's WEDC, which has been rife with mismanagement and perceived cronyism. "Having an employee audit their boss is essentially a joke," said one veteran agency manager.

MADISON - Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin on Monday were circulating a bill that would eliminate the state's independent Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB).

GOP sponsors of the bill said the state would be better served by auditors working within state agencies.

Under the proposal being circulated among GOP lawmakers, the independent audit bureau would be replaced by inspectors general who would provide auditing services to all state agencies with more than 100 employees, according to analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Since its creation in 1966, the LAB has had a long history of independent audits of the Executive Branch. Governors of both parties have wished it would go away, fearing reviews they could not control. But none before Gov. Scott Walker has seriously attempted to kill it.

The existing audit bureau is a free-standing watchdog office that operates independently of the agencies it reviews. The bureau audits the practices of state agencies in addition to their books under the oversight of a bipartisan Legislative committee.

Having internal "inspectors" who report to individual department heads would essentially mute any effective audit function within state agencies, according to one 33 year veteran agency manager. "Having an employee audit their boss is essentially a joke", said our source. "Anyone really trying to be independent would quickly find themselves looking for work. That's why the audit function must be beyond the reach of the executive."

Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) agrees. In a statement issued Monday, Barca said of Rep. Dave Craig’s proposal to eliminate the Legislative Audit Bureau:

“In a session filled with bad ideas, this is one of the worst in terms of adversely affecting the taxpayers' long-term interest.

“One of the greatest strengths of the Wisconsin Legislature is having nonpartisan service agencies like the Audit Bureau, Fiscal Bureau and Reference Bureau. Through these agencies, citizens can be assured they are getting the pure facts and that the information released is not being clouded by partisan judgment or political spin.

“Changing the nonpartisan, award-winning Legislative Audit Bureau into partisan appointees continues the Republican efforts to reduce oversight of state government. The move would allow for more partisan and special-interest influence and further erode Wisconsin’s tradition of clean, open and transparent government.

“The timing is especially curious coming on the heels of the extremely critical audit of the Walker Administration's WEDC, which has been rife with mismanagement and perceived cronyism. Taxpayers deserve more oversight and accountability, not less.”

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During his time in the legislature, Rep. Barca has twice co-chaired the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about action by the Legislature’s majority party to eliminate the non-partisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) annual financial audit of the UW System. The action is a recipe for corruption and is akin to eliminating the watchdog over the taxpayers’ money.

MADISON - “Suspend current law…requiring the Legislative Audit Bureau to conduct an annual financial audit of the UW System. Instead, require the UW System to contract with an independent accounting firm,” read the motion introduced by Senator Harsdorf and Representative Schraa.

Recent action by a majority of the state’s budget writing committee not only kicked the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) out of the UW System but also approved a process to get rid of state purchasing laws at the UW and waive the state’s bidding process for some UW building projects.

The motion effectively throws Wisconsin taxpayer controls out the window for a significant portion of the state budget. The UW System 2-year budget is over $11 billion – about a 7th of the entire state budget.

To justify suspending the LAB’s annual UW audit, the Harsdorf/Schraa motion required UW officials to contract with a private accounting firm.

This action kicked out the watchdog and replaced it with a goldfish.

Private accounting firms count things. They can tell us money was spent and the books were balanced. But their reports won’t tell us about how the money was spent and whether or not the spending was in students’ and taxpayers’ best interest.

Since its creation in 1966, financial audits are a primary responsibility of the Legislative Audit Bureau. In the past two years, the LAB completed 26 financial audits – including the audit opinion of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) of state operations.

In a recent letter to the Co-Chairs of the Legislative Audit Committee, State Auditor Joe Chrisman explained: “In conducting financial audits, LAB follows professional auditing standards issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as well as generally accepted government auditing standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States.”

The LAB financial auditors adhere to the same standards as private firms. They are required to be independent and sharpen their skills and knowledge through continuing education. Every three years the National State Auditors Association subjects the LAB to peer review. State law prohibits any meddling or outside influence with audit investigations and protects whistleblowers with strong confidentiality rules.

The LAB has extensive experience auditing the over $6 billion annual UW System budget.

Over the last 8 years or so the LAB reported on the following: how the UW allocates state tax money and tuition to campuses; the process followed to assess the financial reporting of entities like the UW Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF); overpayments for retirement contributions and health insurance (some of the health insurance contributions were for employees no longer with the UW); audit differences including financial reporting errors by the UW System; changes in financial activities of the UW including an increase in unrestricted net assets; and internal controls.

The UW does not hire the LAB. Auditors answer to the State Auditor who answers to the Legislature, who answers to the people. No private firm involved.

The LAB answers questions my colleagues, taxpayers and I most often ask: What’s going on? How is it working? Can we do things better?

Kick out the LAB? Doing away with state procurement policies on contracting and hiring private firms? Doing away with some bidding rules? Contracting with a private auditing firm who knows nothing about the complex accounting and operations of the UW?

When I reviewed the Harsdorf/Schraa motion, I was left with a serious question: Why?

Recently Representatives Craig (R-Waukesha) and Jarchow (R-Balsam Lake) drafted a bill to entirely eliminate the Legislative Audit Bureau and the Legislative Audit Committee. They want to create an Inspector General for each state agency over 100 employees. They transfer all legislative oversight of the executive branch and the fraud, waste and abuse hotline to two partisan leaders. Their bill imbeds auditors in the agencies making them ripe for corruption by executive staff and partisan leaders.

The breadth of the Representatives’ ignorance of LAB activities and processes is staggering. Their bill shows a complete unfamiliarity with the skills of auditors, the efficiencies in government LAB staff helped created and the fraud, waste and abuse auditors discovered and further prevented through their oversight. All I can ask is why would legislators want do away with the LAB?

MILWAUKEE - Boy, the Milwaukee Bucks must really be feeling the love.

Bucks owners Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens think of their club and their dream of a gleaming new palace for the franchise as a “transformative economic and cultural asset” for Milwaukee and all of Wisconsin. But when Governor Scott Walker and top legislative leaders announced yesterday that they intend to put taxpayers on the hook for half of the cost of a new arena, they stood behind a sign reading “Cheaper To Keep Them.”

Now there’s a marketing slogan. The Milwaukee Bucks: Less of a burden if they stay.

Walker and his allies insist that taxpayers will be better off footing the bill for $250 million of the cost of building a new arena because they claim the Bucks pulling up stakes and moving to another city would cost Wisconsin even more in lost tax revenue. They pluck a number – $419 million over 20 years – out of thin air to justify their claim.

Of course, the very same kind of argument could be made against other budget decisions the governor and legislative Republicans are making. Applying the logic used to defend a taxpayer subsidy for billionaire owners and millionaire basketball players, it would undeniably be cheaper over the long haul to keep the University of Wisconsin System fully funded. The UW System is a proven economic engine that not only employs large numbers of taxpaying faculty and support staff but also spawns countless start-up companies that end up being big revenue producers as well. But the UW is in line for a $250 million budget cut, exactly the same amount the Bucks are in line to receive.

It also would be cheaper in the end to keep state parks as they are instead of eliminating all state funding for them as the governor and legislative budget writers aim to do. The parks are fuel for the tourism industry, another proven economic engine.

There is a virtually endless list of things in the state budget that are being cut sharply or eliminated altogether but would be cheaper to keep. Funny how this calculus is only used to justify feeding billionaires.

MADISON - I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how young people want nothing to do with politics and are running away from civic life.

So Millennials don’t want to be politicians. Has anyone stopped to think maybe they want to be leaders instead?

By force of habit, we refer to elected officials as our nation’s leaders, our state’s leaders and our community’s leaders. But based on what I’ve seen over the course of my life, I can’t think of a class of people generally less involved with leadership than politicians.

True leaders give credit and take blame. Politicians almost always do the exact opposite.

Leaders don’t need handlers. Politicians rarely move a muscle without consulting their consultants. They have pollsters who tell them what to think, and speech writers who tell them what to say, and donors and lobbyists who tell them what to do. That is a lot of things, but it is not leadership.

Politicians are exceptionally practiced at knowing which way a parade is heading and running to the front and grabbing a drum. Leaders don’t look for parades.

There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more important to your average elected official than winning the next election. Doing the right thing doesn’t even come in a distant second. I am not sure what you call that, but it is not leading.

My observation over the years and especially in recent days is that there is indeed something more important than winning elections to those who call themselves party “leaders.” When forced to choose between losing elections and losing control, party bosses will sacrifice electoral success every time. They can live with losing members, they can explain away defeats at the polls. They cannot bear surrendering control. I don’t know exactly what kind of ship that is, but it is not leadership.

Millennials get badmouthed a lot by older folks. Teens and twenty-somethings are too dependent on technology. They don’t know the true meaning of hard work. They don’t this and they don’t that. There are a great many explanations for the bad rap, I suppose. But I think a big one is that those with more gray on the roof are much more likely to confuse behaviors commonly observed in the political arena with leadership.

I may be in a small minority, but I am bullish on the Millennials. I think they will turn out to be a transformational generation. One reason I have for this faith in them is their profound distaste for all those common political behaviors, which means they have a fighting chance to maximize their capacity for genuine leadership.

Peg Coyne, a real life teacher, comments on Gov. Walker and the Republican legislative majority's attack on public education in Wisconsin and the negative effect it has on teacher's morale and our kids.

MADISON - I write to address the attack on teachers by Governor Walker and the Republican legislative majority. They challenge teachers’ competency and integrity. As a teacher, our “so called” lack of accountability, our “so-called” Cadillac benefits, our “so-called” inflated salaries, and our “so-called” tenure for life are being unjustifiably challenged.

Teachers’ wages have not kept up with increasing inflation for years, and our fringe benefits have suffered greatly under Governor Walker. Tenure and similar provisions simply provide teachers with just cause protection and due process relative to improper discharge.

The Republican legislative majority espouses that these factors are to blame for the state budget woes. In February, 2011, the Governor dropped “the bomb”, as he called it. The “bomb” (Act 10) was intended to solve the State’s alleged budget problems. Walker said he would destroy our unions by “divide and conquer” techniques. Eventually, Walker’s bomb would be the beginning of the Republican’s mission to destroy public education in Wisconsin.

As I walked the square day after day in the winter and spring of 2011, to demonstrate the challenge by thinking people of the Governor’s professed strategy, I couldn't help but wonder how Act 10 would impact the education of my students?

Walker said it was supposed to be about giving school districts in Wisconsin the “tools” to control costs. He claimed that the provisions of Act 10 were to allow more money for students, facilities, and materials by reducing employee costs. This would be accomplished by cutting wage increases to an amount way below the increase in the cost of living, and by increasing employee contributions toward health insurance premiums and retirement deposits. A demoralizing fact for educators and their families, many of whom were already suffering from the effects of the 1993 Revenue Controls on school boards, and legislated limits on wage increases.

As a teacher activist, I attended school board meetings in Madison and other districts around the state. I listened to the angst the proposed legislation was causing both new and veteran educators. I listened to new educators explain how they would not be able to afford rent, payments for their car, and student loans. I heard how these “takeaways” would cause family income to shrink drastically, and in some extreme cases, would force educators into foreclosure on their homes and bankruptcy. And, I wondered how this stress on teachers would affect students. A teacher under stress does not help education.

Act 10 was also touted as a way to assess the educator’s effectiveness. After all, good teachers can make a huge difference in students' lives. But a well-intended framework that was meant to guide teaching practices becomes a system of “gotcha” or a systematic way of rating teachers as not performing well.

Next, standardized testing of all students became “the answer” to what is allegedly wrong with public education. These two worlds of so-called teacher accountability and student testing are on a collision course to destroy public education.

Tying student test scores to teacher worth is the ultimate “gotcha” for both teachers and students. Why? Because standardized tests are often false prophets or plainly just for profit, or both. Such tests are not culturally relevant, do not accommodate students of different abilities, and are a colossal commitment of time (taking time away from instruction) and money. After almost constant testing from April 20^th through May 29^th, it is painfully apparent that my students' glazed-over eyes or emotional-meltdowns are the result of too much time testing and staring at extremely unengaging formats on computer screens.

Misplaced priorities (corporate driven education reform) propose that Common Core Curriculum and high stakes testing solve the problems of the alleged “failing schools”. Those of us who are actually education experts know that these simple “fixes” are not what our students need. What do students need? Check with educators:

• Students need early childhood education, safe and healthy daycare settings.

• Well-rounded K-12 curriculum to include art, music, physical education, school libraries, playgrounds, updated facilities and technology to meet the needs of the whole child.

• A society that addresses poverty, opportunity gaps, family health care and nutrition, social justice and equity.

• School social workers and psychologists to assist with the negative impacts of poverty, family and societal dysfunction, and improper diet.

• Hope for the future.

• To be valued in their communities.

• ...no simple fixes!

It is obvious that educators are not in the profession for greed. Rather, they truly want to educate children, guide students to reach their highest potential, and provide valued service to the community. Educators find joy and intangible rewards as they watch young people grow and blossom. Educators find value in learning, and in advanced education. These described political proposals, which not only de-value college degrees, hard-earned experience, expertise in child development and classroom management, are very discouraging to educators.

Isn't it ironic, that Legislators and the Governor with little or no advanced education or classroom teaching experience think they are qualified to write educational policy? In her article in the Washington Post, “What the heck is going on with Wisconsin public education”, Valerie Strauss quoted Wisconsin State Superintendent Tony Evers, “We are sliding toward the bottom (of the states) in standards for those who teach our students. It doesn’t make sense. We have spent years developing licensing standards to improve the quality of the teacher in the classroom, which is the most important school-based factor in improving student achievement. Now (with the proposed legislation) we’re throwing out those standards.” Strauss added, “Meanwhile, Walker hasn’t said anything publicly that would make anyone think he doesn’t agree with the education path on which the legislature has embarked.”

What do educators want for students? The same things that good parents want for their children. An opportunity for a whole, positive, and healthy childhood. Opportunities to grow their intellect and nurture their talents. For the advancement of our State, as well as the children, we must provide our students the dignity of attending well-maintained, modern public schools with sufficient funding, balanced curriculum, and progressive pedagogy.

UW Dean of Education Julie Underwood and UW Education Professional Julie Mead wrote about these legislative proposals, “It’s wrong to rewrite education policy in the budget bill. We are deeply concerned by the education policy changes approved by the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance. There is no research to show that any of these proposals would improve student learning. The changes continue a pattern of shifting tax dollars out of public schools in order to create a publicly funded entitlement to pay private school tuition. And finally, they were placed into the bill without sufficient notice and debate, subverting our democratic processes.” Hooray for these highly respected professors speaking out!

At last, we must all stand up. Wisconsin, we must raise our voices in protest. We must listen to the voices of reason. We must join together educators, parents of public school students, GRUMPS, members of school boards across the state, and school superintendents.

We must join the efforts of State Senators Kathleen Vinehout, Jennifer Shilling, Dave Hansen, Janis Ringhand and Jon Erpenbach; Representatives Melissa Sargent, Dianne Hesselbein, Chris Taylor, Terese Berceau, Sondy Pope, Cory Mason, Gary Hebl and Dave Considine – all champions of education.

Sen. Vinehout recently wrote that she agrees with Governor Walker’s comment, “Our #1 priority gotta be to make (sic) sure that we make K-12 schools, public education in the state, a priority to make sure that they’re held whole.” Vinehout said she agreed that public schools must be made whole, but she questions how the Governor could make such a comment when, for the first time in Wisconsin history, the Governor proposes no increase the state-imposed revenue controls on local school boards. She said she took the Governor’s comment as an indication that he would adequately fund public schools, but instead he proposed huge state funding for private and parochial schools; $12,000 per pupil ($50 million for the next year) going to private and parochial schools from the budget of the local public school district.

As One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross said, “Governor Walker and legislative Republicans have proposed the largest cuts to public education in state history, and now the voucher program (public school funds to private and parochial schools) will suck up more state money.”

Stand Up! Raise Your Voices! An Educated Populace Benefits All Of Us!

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Peg Coyne is President of the Madison Teachers Inc.

Seven major Wisconsin health insurers are projecting large rate increases for 2016, ranging from 10% to 32%. Increases are a sign that Governor Walker and the State Legislator’s complete inaction on health insurance rates will cost Wisconsin.

STATEWIDE - Preliminary health insurance premium rates released this week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that seven major Wisconsin health insurers projecting large rate increases for 2016, including major for-profit companies such as UnitedHealthcare.

Rate increases range from 10% to 32% for these seven companies. The proposed rates were released because under the transparency provisions of the Affordable Care Act proposed rate increases over 10% must be made public.

The projected rate increases are a sign that Governor Walker and the State Legislator’s complete inaction on health insurance rates will cost Wisconsin consumers dearly in 2016.

According to a report released by Citizen Action of Wisconsin in April, there are a number of decisions the Walker Administration and the Legislature have made that are increasing health insurance rates in Wisconsin.

First, the Walker Administration's failure to implement robust rate review may be increasing premiums from 4-17%. Although the Affordable Care Act requires Walker’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance to review premiums increases over 10%, the agency has yet to find a single rate increase excessive since this provision of the law went into effect in 2011.

Second, failure to accept enhanced federal funds for BadgerCare is shifting higher cost consumers onto private insurance, raising premiums for everyone else. Research from the Rand Corporation projects that states which refuse expanded Medicaid dollars have rates 8-10% higher.

Third, the Walker Administration made the decision to allow substandard health plans to continue to be sold in Wisconsin. A Rand Corporation report found that this practice keeps healthy people who already had insurance when the health care law went into effect out of the risk pool, raising premiums by as much as 10% for everyone else.

“It is stunning that health insurance costs seem to have fallen off the public agenda in Madison,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “The preliminary 2016 health insurance premium increases ought to be a wakeup to policymakers that moderating health care costs should be one of the top priorities of state government. In the new health care environment, those states that take full advantage of the tools provided by health care reform will have lower costs than those that do nothing but try to sabotage reform. ”

Last week, the Joint Finance Committee took action to strip away teacher standards, leaving education leaders and state citizens up in arms and more concerned then ever about the future of education in Wisconsin. Senator Vinehout writes about the importance of highly qualified teachers and calls on the public to contact legislators about this issue.

MADISON - “I’m counting on you,” Tracy from Mondovi wrote me.

“The architects of the Joint Finance Committee’s education budget package wrongly assumes that anyone can teach by allowing those with minimal qualifications and little more than a high school diploma to educate our children. Their action will degrade the quality of teaching in Wisconsin and represents a race to the bottom.”

Tracy was one of many constituents who recently contacted me about a big change in the state’s teaching standards.

In late night budget action, after freezing the school revenue limit and allowing no increase in aid, the Republican majority voted to strip away teaching standards.

As State Superintendent Tony Evers described in his statement, the changes “would require the Department of Public Instruction to license anyone with a bachelor’s degree in any subject to teach English, social studies, mathematics, and science.” Private schools or public schools would decide “that the individual is proficient and has relevant experience in each subject they teach.”

In addition, the state would be required to issue a teaching permit for “individuals who have not earned a bachelor’s degree, or potentially a high school diploma, to teach in any subject area, excluding the core subjects of mathematics, English, science, and social studies. The only requirement would be that the public school or district or private voucher school determines that the individual is proficient and has relevant experience in the subject they intend to teach.”

At the heart of this proposal is a complete disregard for the profession of teaching.

Proponents of this proposal assume that because you know something, you can also teach it. Any parent who has tried to assist a child with their math homework knows there is a big difference between knowing and teaching a subject.

Teaching shapes young minds for future learning. A great teacher has an impact on a youngster that lasts a lifetime. A poor teacher can have the same effect. The fifty-something who says “I can’t do math” might have been told as a youngster “you can’t do math.”

Learning comes differently to each of us. Part of the process of teaching is finding the unique learning style of each child and tailoring the lesson to allow each child to succeed. Knowing the content is the beginning, not the end of teacher education.

It’s been a long time since I took college classes to be educated as a teacher. But the lessons I learned follow me into every town hall meeting.

I thank the professors in the School of Education for the lessons they instilled in my intensive two-year teacher-training program. What I do in a public setting is effective because I consciously put in practice what I learned long ago.

Teachers know it is not just what you know but how you act that makes the difference for students mastering new knowledge or entirely turning off to a subject.

As Mr. Ryan, from Prescott, wrote to me, “Education preparation includes not only the history and psychology of education over time, it also includes opportunities for aspiring professionals to learn best practices, current theory, apply and collect data to develop proven methods, and much more. Moreover, it includes the most important aspect...live, in-person, human interaction and collaboration, …with all the attention placed on accountability, why in the world would legislation be put forth that moves the state of Wisconsin to the back of the line in terms of teacher training and preparation?”

Why indeed? Do we want Wisconsin to lead the nation in a lack of standards for teachers? International research tells us high standards for teachers and intensive teacher education result in the best outcome for students.

We need a widespread public outcry to stop what’s happening in this budget.

As Tracy told me, “I’m counting on you.” But to stop the race to the lowest standards and below national average funding for local schools, I need Republican legislator’s votes. They need to recognize, as the Pepin Superintendent wrote, “No one who votes for this budget can claim to support public schools.”

Everyone in Wisconsin has a stake in providing the best education possible for the generations to come. Now is the time to get involved. Your grandchild’s future depends on your action.

MADISON - Action taken today by the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee cuts $250 million from our UW campuses. While this is $50 million less than the $300 million cut Gov. Scott Walker had originally proposed, it is still a devastating cut to higher education in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin will become one of only six states in the nation to cut funding for its public universities. As a result students and returning adults will find it more difficult and more expensive to get the classes they need to graduate.

According to Sen. Dave Hansen (D - Green Bay), “Had the Legislature and the Governor focused their energy on creating jobs like they promised instead of giving billions in tax breaks to the wealthy and millions in taxpayer giveaways to their special interest friends, Wisconsin wouldn’t be one of the worst states for job creation and Wisconsin families wouldn’t have to endure the increased costs they will now have to bear in order for their children to graduate from a UW school."

While our neighbors are using the increased revenue from their improved economic performance to increase funding for their universities, under the current leadership Wisconsin continues to fall further behind.

It is time for the Governor and Legislative Republicans to admit their agenda of placing corporate profits before the needs of average Wisconsinites has failed and to take back our $400 million in federal tax dollars like our neighbors have done and use it to restore affordability for Wisconsin’s UW students and their families.

Wisconsin lawmakers tweaked Gov. Scott Walker's plan to expand the state's Family Care program and wrap the IRIS program into it on Wednesday, ignoring advocates for the elderly and disabled who have balked at the plan. Change made to allow ADRCs to be operated by out-of-state corporations.

MADISON - Republicans on the Legislature's budget committee Wednesday backed some but not all of Gov. Scott Walker's sweeping proposals to overhaul the state's long-term care system for elderly and disabled people.

The Joint Finance Committee voted 12-4 along party lines to clear the way for major changes to Family Care and IRIS (Include, Respect, I Self-Direct), two programs that care for tens of thousands of vulnerable individuals outside nursing homes. They also made significant changes to the Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) program.

The action ignored much of the testimony at recent hearings. Advocates for the elderly and disabled have said the budget proposal could force vulnerable people into turmoil by eventually requiring them to change doctors, care workers who visit their homes, or even the group homes where they live.

They also have pointed to problems that the state encountered after a separate change that shifted to a single statewide provider of medical rides. An audit released earlier this month confirmed complaints about "no-show" and late arrivals for nonemergency medical rides by the contractor, MTM Inc.

Family Care provides long-term care outside nursing homes to some 41,000 elderly and disabled people throughout Wisconsin using state and federal money. Lawmakers backed Walker's proposal to expand Family Care by Jan. 1, 2017, to the state's eight remaining counties without it, including Dane County.

In the biggest change to Family Care, the proposal approved Wednesday would aim to combine both long-term care and ordinary medical care. The program would even seek to coordinate the state program with federal Medicare coverage — an effort that critics said would be difficult to achieve without the consent of patients.

Lynn Breedlove, a leader of the Wisconsin Long-Term Coalition, said he remained concerned that the proposal would shift the system to large out-of-state insurance companies and away from its current network of regional nonprofits that provide most of the care.

"Let's be clear, this new plan is just the governor's proposal in sheep's clothing," Breedlove said. "Thousands of people expressed opposition to dismantling the current system, but the Legislature is doing it anyway."

“Wisconsin ranks 8th in the nation for the quality of our long-term care due in large part to the success of our community-based Family Care program," said Senator Dave Hansen (D - Green Bay). "It makes no sense to change it over to a for-profit system unless you are a politician who places the pursuit of corporate profits over the lives of everyday Wisconsinites."

The IRIS Program is a Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) which allows adults with long term care needs to self-direct, including hiring their own caregivers, which is not currently available to the same degree in Family Care. The budget proposed would effectively eliminate the IRIS program, requiring the 11,000+ participants to enroll in Family Care if they wish to continue receiving long-term care.

“IRIS has proven to be a strong, family supporting plan for those that are elderly, disabled, and otherwise unable to live on their own without support of their community and family. We heard over and over again at the four public hearings around Wisconsin how IRIS was a lifeline for those that contribute in our communities working and volunteering, without IRIS those doors close, we know this works and anything short for a full repeal is not acceptable for our most vulnerable adult communities,” said Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton).

The ARDC program operates like efficient, locally based one-stop shops for people with disabilities. Under the budget proposal, functions of ADRCs could be operated by different for-profit entities that may no longer be local, creating barriers to access.

"ADRC’s open their doors to our frail elderly and their families, helping guide them in their own communities when tough decisions need to be made, working to keep people in their homes for dignity and cost savings. It is incredible that Governor Walker ever thought his plan was a decent idea for Wisconsin,” said Erpenbach.

Recent action taken by majority party members on the Joint Finance Committee on funding for public education provided limited additional revenue to public schools while opening the door for expansion of private vouchers. It will take dollars away from public schools.

ALMA, WI - “Our number one priority gotta to be make (sic) sure that we make K-12 schools, public education in the state, a priority to make sure they’re held whole,” said Governor Walker on April 23rd, as quoted by Wisconsin Radio Network.

I agree, Governor! Let’s make public schools “whole.”

In a recent late night session, the state’s budget writing committee took up public school funding. Many advocates expected a turnaround in the governor’s proposed funding for local schools. Instead folks got a big surprise: lots of changes asked for by private school lobbyists. Not so for public schools.

In a press release, State Superintendent Tony Evers described the actions this way:

• For the first time ever, there is no increase in state imposed revenue limits over the next two school years, while voucher and independent charter school payments are increased in each year.
• State general equalization aid to public schools is cut in the first year to pay for voucher expansion and increased independent charter school payments. This leaves public schools with less state general aid than in 2010.
• Continues the freeze on state special education aid for what will be the eighth consecutive year, covering roughly a quarter of district special education costs while creating a new voucher program that drains funds from public schools.
• Essentially eliminates teacher licensing standards by allowing public and private schools to hire anyone to teach, even those without a bachelor’s degree, planting Wisconsin at the bottom nationally, below states with the lowest student achievement levels.

Republicans on the Joint Finance committee opened wide the spigot of state money flowing to private schools. Created in late night actions was a new statewide special education “voucher” program with $12,000 per student leaving the local school district; permission for the multiplication of some privately-operated independent charter schools and statewide expansion of private vouchers for all students with a cap of 1% of the local district’s enrollment in the first year and moving to unlimited expansion after several years. Money for this statewide subsidy would come from the local public schools.

In addition, to keep competitive sports programs, public schools would be required to accept private and home-schooled children into their sports programs and extracurricular activities and not charge these students any more than a public school student would be charged for sports or extracurricular activities. This rule would essentially ask public school parents to underwrite the cost of these private school children coming back into the public schools to partake of after-school activities – as the school would receive no additional fees from the state for these students.

Republican Finance Committee members also voted to create a new private school take-over of Milwaukee public schools. This system would leave no public school alternative in many Milwaukee neighborhoods. Many residents are concerned this action violates the state’s constitution to require an equal and public education for all children.

Left far behind was the governor’s promise to make sure public schools are “held whole.”

Ironically the day before, the governor spoke to a pro-private school group in New Orleans - the American Federation for Children - according to a Wisconsin State Journal report.

Had the governor been here, I would have told him that to make schools “whole” means returning the money cut from public schools.

The cumulative cut to public schools since 2011 – the first Governor Walker budget – is nearly $1.7 billion. These cuts happened at a time when Wisconsin collected and spent a cumulative increase in revenue of nearly $13.8 billion.

These staggering cuts – at a time when the state was spending much more – drained the savings of school districts, delayed maintenance, caused pay cuts and freezes to staff and left children with fewer resources.

As state school aid dropped and districts used up all available budget cutting measures, many districts were forced to go to referendum. The Wisconsin Taxpayer recently reported 78% of referenda passed in April of 2015 – a significantly higher rate than prior years. Property taxpayers, committed to their local schools, are picking up more of the burden.

Local public schools are at a breaking point. These new private school proposals will hasten their demise. Governor, it’s time to stand by your promise and make our public schools “whole”.

While the plan increases K-12 funding, it also expands School Choice in Wisconsin and approves Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Reform Plan allowing the County Executive to appoint a commissioner to run a type of recovery program for public schools.

MADISON - In a long debate Tuesday night, legislative Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) proposed an extreme plan for dismantling the public education system in Wisconsin. Finally, at about 1:30 in the morning Wednesday, the omnibus education motion came to the JFC. There it passed 12-4 on a party line vote just as it would have before the debate.

The Republican plan comes straight out of Gov. Scott Walker's campaign rhetoric. While the plan does include some additional K-12 public school funding, it also expands both Racine and the statewide school choice programs with an enrollment cap of one percent per district until total enrollment is 10 percent higher than it is now.

In a further slap at Milwaukee Public Schools, it creates the Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program (OSPP) in which County Executive Chris Abele appoints a commissioner to run a type of privatized recovery program for public schools. The commissioner would select one to three schools in the first few years and up to five schools starting in 2017 to be handed over to the OSPP program. The program would select an operator, public or private, to run the selected schools. Existing staff at these schools would have to reapply for employment and the commissioner would have discretion over employment at the schools.

According to the right wing MacIver Institute, "JFC Republicans introduced the package to deal with the entire K-12 education agenda in one fell swoop."

According to Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) in a statement released this morning:

"Last night, legislative Republicans proposed an extreme plan for dismantling our public education system that not only harms education – it also undermines the will of voters. As part of an extreme budget proposal, Republicans will drastically change the system of educating children with disabilities without even holding a public hearing to shovel more funds to the private voucher school community. Overall, the net effect of the changes is the millionaires who fund Republican campaigns were popping champagne corks celebrating their great fortune last night.

“This Republican plan further defunds public schools and destroys local control. The taxpayers of Racine certainly did not ask for 12 Republican legislators to dismantle their way of electing their local, democratically created school board. And that sort of disrespect and knee-capping of local control will be happening in communities across Wisconsin. It is clear this Republican education budget is not meant to serve our Wisconsin communities and values – it is meant to curry favor with Republican presidential primary voters and out-of-state special interest groups that bankroll legislative Republican campaigns.

“So-called ‘Opportunity Schools and Partnership Programs’ were not requested by Milwaukee or any of the other large cities that could be affected, no hearings were held and the effects could be devastating to our large school districts.

“Republicans continue to mislead the people of Wisconsin by claiming they have made schools ‘whole’ while they are only funding one element of our school formula and draining public schools of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars they are giving to private schools. The Republican end goal to allow unlimited taxpayer dollars to go to private schools signals the end of public education as we know it in this state.

“There are so many bad aspects of this Republican education budget, but I am especially appalled by their creation of a special education voucher system that takes additional money out of public schools and leaves parents and special needs students with no resources or rights. It is clear that by not requiring services for children with severe needs or complicated medical issues that this burden will still fall upon public schools. It is the height of arrogance to add an entirely new approach to educating children with disabilities without so much as a public hearing to allow educators an opportunity to offer their insights.

“Republicans’ arrogance of power knows no bounds and their disrespect of the citizens of this state to undermine local control and make dramatic and even radical changes to education late in the night without any notice, hearings or consultation with the communities they disrupt is a terrible abuse of power.”

New questions about a $500,000 loan granted by Gov. Scott Walker's troubled Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to a donor follow allegations that nearly $585 million of the $975 million in taxpayer assistance provided by WEDC went to companies that had contributed to Walker’s campaign.

MADISON - Over the weekend, the Wisconsin State Journal broke another story about Gov. Scott Walker's troubled Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). This time, it appears that WEDC may have granted at least one loan totaling $500,000 as a favor to one of the governor’s campaign contributors.

The State Journal reported that Gov. Scott Walker’s top aides and a powerful lobbyist pressed in 2011 to award a $500,000 unsecured loan to Building Committee Inc., owned by William Minahan, for a proposed project to retrofit bank and credit union buildings for energy efficiency. The taxpayer-funded loan eventually lost the state half a million dollars, created no jobs and raised questions about where the money went.

This recent revelation follows allegations that nearly $585 million of the $975 million in taxpayer assistance provided by WEDC went to companies that had contributed to Governor Walker’s campaign either directly or indirectly.

Equally troubling was the recent audit that found that staff at WEDC ignored both WEDC policy and state law while providing taxpayer assistance to companies under questionable circumstances. A number of companies actually outsourced Wisconsin jobs to foreign countries after receiving taxpayer assistance that were supposed to be used to create jobs here in Wisconsin.

Senator Dave Hansen (D - Green Bay) has been a consistent critic of the Governor's use of the WEDC as the State's primary economic development tool since 2011.

According to Hansen  “Recent news stories concerning the approval of a $500,000 loan from WEDC to a wealthy donor of the Governor serves to confirm what we have been saying for years, that WEDC is a failed model for economic development that is ripe for corruption."

“Unfortunately those of us who said that WEDC was a failed model from the start have seen our prediction come true. After wasting millions of taxpayer dollars amid numerous scandals and changes in staff, it is time to admit that the WEDC model is a failure and scrap it in favor of a more open and transparent model that is truly accountable to the taxpayers," Hansen added.

Short of closing down WEDC the Governor should clean house from top to bottom, put in place stronger methods of accountability that hold all company officers accountable for failing to repay taxpayer loans or create Wisconsin jobs, and close the loopholes that allow taxpayer dollars to be used by companies that outsource Wisconsin jobs.

Or maybe, as Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D - Alma) argued recently, we should just go back the a Department of Commerce.

Hansen's conclusion: "With Wisconsin’s economy still continuing to lag our neighbors and the nation we can no longer afford the kind of failure that WEDC has become synonymous with.”

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about the recently released audit of the Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Program, used by many in Wisconsin for rides to medical appointments.

MADISON - Last April I wrote about many complaints I received concerning rides to medical appointments for folks in BadgerCare and other Medicaid programs.

People complained drivers didn’t show up, rides were late, drivers didn’t arrive for the return trip home and – at least in one case – the heater did not work in a van taking an elderly woman for her dialysis appointment.

Often patients were told no drivers were available. But local transportation companies told me they were not getting enough business. Local drivers thought the St. Louis-based contractor, Medical Transportation Management, Inc. (MTM) favored a few large companies over small local ones. MTM is the statewide Non-Emergency Medical Transportation ‘broker’ the state hired to arrange rides for eligible patients.

Complaints about poor service helped my colleagues and I convince other legislators to approve a full investigation of the program.

Over 300 people called the Legislative Audit Bureau’s (LAB) hotline to share their complaints. These calls and over 50 interviews conducted by LAB staff were used to analyze problems with the Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Program. In addition, a survey was sent to 5,000 patients and their families. Also 311 transportation providers completed an internet-based survey.

The results of the year-long investigation are now in.

The new LAB report shows evidence of late rides, drivers’ failure to pick up people for their return ride home and the tendency of MTM to choose a few large transportation companies over smaller, local companies.

Despite problems, of the 773 riders who responded to the questionnaire, almost 87% were satisfied or very satisfied with their overall experience.

During the audit study period (August 2013 through June 2014), MTM provided 2.3 million trips and, by its own standard, estimated 99.6% of these trips were complaint free.

The LAB reviewed 12,748 complaints filed with MTM. Two-thirds of the time the company did not provide patients timely updates on their investigation of complaints.

The most common substantiated complaint was that the patient had to reschedule a trip because the driver never arrived. Second most common was the driver was late.

Analysis by auditors showed problems, particularly in rural areas, with no vehicles available to transport patients.

A majority of transportation providers surveyed reported they were dissatisfied with MTM’s trip scheduling, poor trip volume and poor compensation.

Drivers complained they were given a request for a ride after the time and date of the appointment. Since drivers were penalized for late rides, this led to time and energy spent by the provider to correct MTM’s mistake.

The audit also provided unexpected insight into a significant cost of drug abuse – in this case transporting recovering patients to treatment for addiction. Trips to drug treatment programs accounted for almost a quarter of the cost of services paid to providers during the audit period. In addition, 91 of the top 100 high cost patients had at least one drug addiction treatment visit.

Auditors mentioned that the lack of drug treatment services in rural areas contributed to high costs. In one case an individual made 540 trips between Ashland County and Eau Claire for treatment. In another case, an individual traveled 321 times between Polk County and Eau Claire. Recently enacted legislation to create new treatment programs in underserved and rural areas should help bring down future transportation costs.

Auditors found there was clearly a difference in patient satisfaction levels measured through an independent survey and the complaint rate of patients directly to MTM. These findings suggest a future independent survey could provide a more accurate perspective in determining actual patient satisfaction.

Nearly all complaints I heard leading up to this audit were verified by auditors. At the same time, most patients were satisfied with the ride service they received.

Some state programs might be pleased with such high satisfaction. But given the seriousness of the patients’ conditions – needing renal dialysis for example – it makes sense that we should hold MTM to a very high standard.

As Representative Peter Barca testified at the hearing that began this audit process, “When people are in the most sensitive period of their life, we must ensure they receive services and are treated with respect and dignity.”

There are at least four different deficits in the state budget that is working its way through Wisconsin's legislature. Wisconsin is lagging the nation in so many respects. All these deficits certainly aren’t going to help matters any.

MADISON - Wisconsin lawmakers started the process of building a new state budget in a substantial hole. They insisted their predecessors dug it, but in truth the hole was of their own making. When they are done, the books will be made to appear balanced on the surface for the time being, even though a sizeable underlying “structural deficit” will remain.

The ongoing inability or unwillingness of budget writers to truly put our state government in the position of taking in as much as it spends is a significant problem, but it represents only one of the budget deficits we will have in Wisconsin.

In addition to leaving a financial deficit, the proposed budget as it stands now suffers from a common sense deficit as well. It not only continues to fund state programs that are not working, it throws good money after bad by expanding those failing programs. The private school voucher program has been around for a quarter-century now, and has never delivered on its promises. After more than two decades the program has not boosted student achievement as its supporters said it would. Voucher students do no better than public school students, and by some measures they do worse. Yet this budget takes more money away from public schools to fund further expansion of the voucher program.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation established back in 2011 has been a train wreck since its inception. But despite fresh evidence that WEDC is playing fast and loose with taxpayer money but is unable to document that its actions produce much of any actual economic development, the budget includes a $55 million increase in state funding for the agency.

There also is a pronounced common good deficit in this budget. It seeks to privatize pretty much everything, from human services and state parks to local schools and the state university system. It does this despite the fact that human services experts in other states and local communities across the country “are finding that turning over these programs to private contractors not only fails to achieve projected cost savings but also decreases access to these important services,” according to the watchdog group In the Public Interest. If approved as written, the budget will make parks more expensive to the public and will likely discourage tourism. Top business leaders warn the planned cuts to the university system will hurt Wisconsin’s economy.

Among the many deficits in this budget is a distinct vision deficit. Instead of working to make higher education as affordable for future generations as past generations made it for us, lawmakers have confined themselves to debating only whether college spending should be cut by a little or a lot and whether student tuition should be kept at its stratospherically high current levels or allowed to go up even more. No thought is being given to closing the digital divide, which is critical especially to rural development and a key to dealing with growing inequality. Lawmakers aren’t even showing any interest in thinking creatively about how to avoid deep cuts without raising taxes.

Wisconsin is lagging the nation in so many respects, as our neighbors to the west never hesitate to remind us. All these deficits certainly aren’t going to help matters any.

MADISON - Imagine you took a pay cut each of the last four years. Now suppose you were pulled into your boss’s office and told that you wouldn’t get a raise this year, even though the company is growing and seeing record profits. Would that seem fair?

Well, that’s the position our local schools are in after years of historic cuts. Despite spending billions more, the current Republican budget continues to roll back state funding for our schools to 2010 levels.

While avoiding another round of cuts is certainly important, is that really a victory? Should we be satisfied with the broken status quo of school funding that forces communities across our state to go to referendum year after year?

Democrats believe that education must be our top budget priority. That means putting the needs of children and our schools ahead of tax breaks for the wealthy and giveaways to special interests.

We know the funding is available. It has been for years. But Republicans made the decision to prioritize tax breaks for special interests and the wealthy while forcing our schools to do more with less.

To fully restore the cuts our schools have seen over the past four years, we need to invest an additional $200 per student above what Gov. Walker and Republicans have proposed. In the grand scheme of multi-billion dollar special interest tax giveaways, surely we can find $200 per student.

If budgets are about priorities, it’s time we invest in our children first and give them the same shot at the American Dream that our parents handed down to us.

Let’s not settle for the broken status quo. Let’s invest in our state and make our schools a shining beacon of opportunity for Wisconsin’s children once again.

On Tuesday, the Legislature will be voting on whether or not to restore the historic funding cuts to our local schools. I encourage everyone to contact your legislative representatives toll-free at 1-800-362-9472 and urge them to support our children by voting for a $200 per pupil increase in school funding.

Anything less than that amount continues the troubling trend of chronic underfunding that has forced larger class sizes, more local referendums and higher property taxes.

800,000 Wisconsin residents carry on average nearly $30,000 in student loans. Republicans more concerned with helping their corporate friends than average families.

MADISON - Republicans who control the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee blocked passage of an amendment that would have made it possible for thousands of Wisconsin residents to refinance their student loans at lower interest rates.

“It is unfortunate that Republicans controlling the Joint Finance Committee chose to protect the profits of big banks on Wall Street than the financial health of thousands of Wisconsinites who could save real money if they were able to refinance their student loans at lower interest rates,” said senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), author of the Higher Ed/Lower Debt bill that would create a student loan refinancing program.

Currently 815,000 Wisconsin residents carry nearly $20 billion in student loan debt with an average student loan debt of $28,000. Research shows that young people with student loan debt are less likely to buy a home or new car while older people with student loan debt are less likely to be able to send their children to college or save for their own retirement.

“We had a chance today to help thousands of people refinance their student loans to lower their cost like you can already do for a home or auto loan. Helping them lower their interest rates makes it possible for them to buy new homes and cars and help grow our economy. And by doing that we can help stop the “brain drain” too by giving college graduates a very strong incentive to stay here rather than move to another state.”

“Unfortunately, the Republican members of the Joint Finance Committee appear more concerned with helping their corporate friends rather than helping average families.”

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about the latest audit of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). The Legislative Audit Bureau reports again on the failure of WEDC to follow state law and its own policies when awarding grants, loans and tax credits to businesses and to verify whether or not promised jobs were actually created.

MADISON - “When do we return the economic development initiative and the checkbook to the control of a state agency” John Dunn of Mauston asked in a letter to Legislators. “The WEDC has again failed to follow state law and its own policies in awarding taxpayer-funded incentives to state companies. We need accountability to taxpayers.”

Not following the law, and not acting in a transparent and accountable way is a frequent criticism of the state’s economic development operations.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), created in 2011 as an independent authority, fell under criticism again with the recent release of another audit showing that WEDC failed to follow state laws and its own policies when awarding grants, loans and tax credits to businesses and failed to independently verify whether or not promised jobs were actually created.

In 2013, the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) found WEDC did not have policies to oversee, for example, the multi-million-dollar economic development grant and loan programs. In October 2013, WEDC officials reported to our Legislative Audit Committee they had addressed the problem.

But two years later, the new audit found while WEDC established policies, they weren’t following the grant and loan policies. For example, loans can be “forgivable” – meaning they aren’t paid back – only in “extraordinary circumstances”. But the audit found in FY 2013-14 two-thirds of the loans in one program were determined to be “forgivable”. In another case a taxpayer-subsidized loan was “forgiven” to a company unlikely to create full-time jobs – a requirement of the loan program.

Similar circumstances existed in the state’s business tax credit programs. Credits are awarded to companies to offset taxes owed to the state. In some cases tax credits are “refundable” meaning if the company owes less in taxes than the credit, the state “refunds” or sends taxpayer money to the company.

Auditors found examples of officials not following established rules for tax credits, like not determining if the project would happen without the tax credit; awarding credits without determining if the company’s tax liability fell within the law limiting credits to 125% of the companies tax liability; and instances of awards made without required financial information.

State law also requires that a portion of tax credits must go to rural and small businesses. In July 2014, the WEDC board revised its own policies to eliminate this requirement – in direct conflict with the state law.

Several of these problems were a repeat of a previous audit.

In another case WEDC awarded tax credits to an Illinois company under the Jobs Tax Credit program in conflict with state law that required activities funded by this program to occur in Wisconsin. Auditors wrote, “The business would be awarded tax credits in amounts based on the wages they paid to their employees while working in Illinois, and such amount would increase the longer the jobs remained in Illinois.” As of December, Wisconsin awarded two Illinois businesses $53,678 in tax credits.

Enterprise Zone and Jobs Tax Credits are refundable and they cost us a lot. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported the cost of just these two programs was $42 million last year. In another report, the LFB noted that Wisconsin contracted with companies for $352.5 million in tax credits over three years.

Does the substantial state money given to these companies result in any economic activity that would not already exist? This question remains unanswered with the most recent audit.

State law requires WEDC to verify jobs created, retained, and if contractually specified wage requirements are met. A previous audit found WEDC did not conduct verification. This recent audit found that even during site visits to companies, officials failed to review payroll records to independently verify jobs. Without information on wages and jobs, it’s impossible to know if the hundreds of millions in state dollars going to companies accomplished anything.

All of this adds up to one inescapable conclusion: WEDC is a failure. With Wisconsin job growth in the lower third among all states, it is time we reevaluate our state economic development policies. The first step must be putting hundreds of millions in state economic development expenses once again under the accountability and transparency rules of the rest of state government.

STATEWIDE - After the release of yet another devastating state audit showing that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) has failed to document that companies receiving grants, tax credits, and loans are actually creating jobs, Governor Walker abruptly announced that he is pulling the plug on his controversial plan to merge the troubled agency with the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA).

While the cancellation of the proposed merger is welcome news for economic opportunity advocates, it fails to address the fundamental problem. WEDC is not just badly mismanaged, it is a flawed model. The notion that our scarce job creation resources should be doled out to business without real accountability is one of the worst ideas in modern Wisconsin legislative history.

The failure to close loopholes that allow companies receiving WEDC support to outsource Wisconsin jobs is only the tip of the iceberg. Wisconsin job growth has lagged behind the rest of the nation, and even worse the majority of jobs generated have been in low income occupations where poverty wages predominate.

The structure of WEDC itself, which by design has less accountability and transparency than a traditional public agency, raises questions about undue influence, further undermining public’s trust in their own government. In an environment where massive corporate election expenditures have been legalized, the public deserves ironclad guarantees that the process of handing out public economic development dollars is above politics.

The only permanent solution that can restore public confidence is to disband WEDC, and create a fully accountable department. The new department should focus its resources on creating the maximum number of family supporting jobs, not poverty jobs, and should place a special emphasis on areas with the greatest shortage of good jobs. There should be clear publicly known benchmarks for any company receiving assistance, a transparent process fully insulated from political considerations, and clawbacks from companies that fail to create the family supporting jobs that were promised. It should adopt Senator Hansen’s proposal to stop providing funds to companies engaged in outsourcing of jobs. It should also cease WEDC’s failed strategy of wasting money on poaching jobs from neighboring states, rather than investing in new economic opportunity.

Given recent research that shows the WIsconsin middle class has contracted more than any state in the country, it is critical that Wisconsin create an effective public agency that can make real progress on opening opportunity to more Wisconsin families.

“What is good for CEOs is not necessarily good for workers. Handing over our state’s economic policies to multinational corporations engaged in outsourcing and converting middle class jobs into poverty wage jobs is driving Wisconsin’s economy into the ground,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “The only way we can halt the decline of the middle class, and expand opportunity to all those who are currently shut out, is to make creating good family supporting jobs the singular purpose of Wisconsin economic policy. No large corporation or CEO has any rightful claim on public dollars, unless they are in turn expanding real economic opportunity for Wisconsin workers.”

Audit reveals additional problems at persistently troubled agency. Can Walker continue to evade responsibility?

MADISON – A new audit of Governor Scott Walker’s persistently troubled Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) released this month revealed another round of critical shortcomings.

Statutes require WEDC to develop and implement economic programs that provide support, expertise, and financial assistance to businesses that are investing and creating jobs in Wisconsin, as well as programs that support new business start-ups and business expansion and growth in the state.

Walker has held out the WEDC as the main tool of his administration to promote job development in Wisconsin. He claimed he could grow jobs by 250,000 in his first term. Instead, despite heavy outflows of taxpayer dollars to corporate friends and a huge income tax cut for the wealthy, Wisconsin continues to lag behind neighboring states as the nationwide economic recovery continues.

The Governor continues to claim "Good news for all of us in Wisconsin" with campaign style sunshine columns spread on the opinion pages of local newspapers. But the real record of the WEDC's failure is plain to see.

Can Walker continue to evade responsibility? In response to the WEDC audit, Senate Democratic Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) said:

“How many more years of failure do we have to put up with before Gov. Walker and legislative Republicans get serious about fixing the deep-rooted issues with this horribly mismanaged agency? As Chairman of the WEDC, Gov. Walker must accept responsibility for the ongoing financial mismanagement issues and troubling news of tax breaks going to companies who outsource Wisconsin jobs. Instead of dealing with these serious issues, Gov. Walker continues to shirk his responsibilities as he jets around the nation in pursuit of his presidential campaign ambitions.”

The WEDC Audit findings show continued problems with the agency. In summary, they were:

• WEDC did not consistently follow statutes or its policies when making financial awards.
• WEDC did not comply with all statutory requirements related to program oversight.
• Staff did not consistently comply with policies established by WEDC’s governing board.
• Additional efforts are needed to help ensure that WEDC administers its state-funded programs effectively.

The Governor’s 2015-17 Biennial Budget Proposal would combine WEDC and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) into the Forward Wisconsin Development Authority, a newly created organization that would begin operation on January 1, 2016, and administer economic development programs. That would provide the show of a reorganization, but little change to the underlining problems Walker faces in job development.

A copy of the audit report may be found here.

MADISON - The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported this week that the state is on track for 3.7 percent growth this year as predicted in January, with no changes expected in the forecast for the next two years. That means the windfall revenue growth Gov. Scott Walker predicted in his re-election campaign last fall will not materialize to offset the $2.2 billion deficit he ran up in his first term.

The disappointing forecast forces the Republican-controlled Legislature to consider alternatives to reduce Walker's proposed budget cuts this year, including accounting moves, increasing borrowing, making other reductions or raising taxes and fees.

According to Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha), who responded to the latest numbers that predict zero additional state revenue on Wednesday, “These weak revenue projections are another indication of the harm that three rounds of Republican budgeting, as well as their anemic economic development efforts, has done to our state".

While our neighboring states take advantage of an improving national economy and are experiencing large budget surpluses, Wisconsin continues to lag behind due to Republicans’ irresponsible budget choices and their poor economic development policies that have left Wisconsin 40th in the country in job growth. We can do better for the people of Wisconsin to ensure long-term economic prosperity.

Our community schools are hurting from Republicans’ actions and schools will continue to struggle even if Republicans restore their own proposed cuts. Time and again, Republicans have sold out Wisconsin schools and instead chosen massive tax giveaways for the corporate special interests and donors who fund Gov. Walker’s campaigns.

And then there is the politically motivated decision by Walker not to accept $345 million in federal Medicaid money. According to Sen. Dave Hansen (D - Green Bay), “The recent revenue numbers from the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau confirm what many of us have been saying for some time now. It is time to put partisan politics and ambitions aside and reclaim $345 million of our federal tax dollars to strengthen BadgerCare and avoid unnecessary cuts to our schools and UW campuses.”

Perhaps Sen. Barca has the best conclusion, “The sad truth is that Gov. Walker’s presidential ambitions – which are being carried out by Republicans in the legislature – will harm Wisconsin communities for years to come.”